![]() ![]() The important thing about LKY, says Singaporean journalist Kirsten Han, is that he helped make sure that “Singapore has never properly decolonised.” For the British, their colonies in Southeast Asia were a highly profitable hub for a bustling opium, rubber, tin, and slave trade. In general, as long as an authoritarian kept their country open to foreign investment and didn’t commit too many atrocities, a hostility to liberal democracy could get a pass. The policy toward LKY was part of a larger Cold War ethos-the long and messy history of failed Western attempts to replace colonial governments with democratic ones, particularly in Southeast Asia. Margaret Thatcher said he was “ never wrong.” Tony Blair noted that LKY was “ the smartest leader I think I ever met.” Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize–winning economist, wrote an encomium touting “ Singapore’s Lessons for an Unequal America.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Netflix has its managers study him.Īll this suggests that American interest in the efficacy of illiberalism is far from recent or consigned to Thiel’s minions. Morgan Chase’s “ International Council.” In 2009, Barack Obama called him “one of the legendary figures of Asia.” Henry Kissinger later delivered an introduction as LKY accepted a lifetime achievement award from the US-ASEAN Business Council. LKY has long been lauded by Western leaders. And Nick Land, an accelerationist philosopher, calls LKY an “autocratic enabler of freedom.” To them, LKY is the paradigm of an illiberal ruler who created a paradise for his subjects: a freedom without rights, a prosperity without disorder.īlake Masters Is Peter Thiel’s Dream Candidate-and a Total Nightmare for Democracyīut it’s not just a few Silicon Valley nerds who love dictators. Curtis Yarvin, Silicon Valley’s resident neo-monarchist, compares LKY to FDR-both good examples, he says, of a unilateral leader. “The exuberance of democracy,” LKY explained, “leads to indiscipline and disorderly conduct, which are inimical to development.”įor a new breed of right-wing thinkers, politicians, and activists, LKY’s approach to government is appealing. A “soft” authoritarianism, as Fareed Zakaria has called it. This is LKY’s model: economic development above all else-even human rights. Singapore has banned all kinds of free speech intervened in marriages and family planning encouraged eugenics caned people for minor crimes created an ethnically homogeneous ruling class treated the migrant worker population as second-class citizens and, famously, banned chewing gum. Today, municipal order is apparent: The streets in Singapore are relentlessly clean, almost everyone has internet access, and modern buildings are ringed by ample green space.ĭuring his reign, LKY successfully fused pro-corporate libertarian economics and state socialism, creating a distinctly conservative mishmash of social and political control. The government built extensive public housing it heavily subsidized health care and education. As it grew, Singapore instituted a far-ranging welfare state. He turned the former British colony into a go-go free market paradise. LKY, as he’s often called, was Singapore’s prime minister from 1959 to 1990 and oversaw what some call its economic miracle. “I don’t think people realize how much of a boss this guy was,” Masters explained. The first was George Washington, possibly the best-known military general, slave owner, and president in American history. In a 2021 interview with the Stanford Review, Blake Masters was asked for a historical figure he admired. ![]() ![]() Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters. ![]()
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